ESPN article on draft failures

By: SlapSwimRip on February 19, 2014, 1:03 PM | 5 comments

I found this article on failures in the draft process interesting. There seem to be parallels (or would they be skew lines?) between NFL teams' inability to properly evaluate risky or marginal talent and VT's ability to evaluate and sign improperly ranked recruits (Maddy, Nicholas, and Sobczak hopefully). Maybe I'm looking at it through orange and maroon colored glasses though and suffering from selection bias.

There's also something to be said about Burfict being highly regarded by scouts at one point, versus consistently being considered a later round prospect. If nothing else, it's an example for some former Hokies that we know have talent to strive for (Coale, B. Taylor, D. Hopkins (although hopefully he's evaluated correctly)).

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10478179/hot-read-how-scouts-avoid-mis...

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Comments

WeAreVT

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| 12 years 4 months #

I don't think you can really compare the NFL to NCAA in that regard.

A lot of Guys that go into the NFL seem to lose most of their drive/effort after they sign that first multi-million dollar contract

rogue_nine9 | 12 years 4 months #

says ESPN NFL draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. "You heard people talking about raw ability, something they could refine once he was drafted, which everyone believed would happen very early in that 2012 draft."

But by the end of his junior season, all of the early descriptions -- raw, unrefined, explosive -- had shifted from positives to negatives.

This part almost seems like it was written about LT3.

VTFootballGrad | 12 years 4 months #

Burfict always had the ability, but he absolutely dogged it his senior year and he was constantly getting 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct calls. He really didn't care.

He would have been a top 15 pick if he came out as a junior, but because of his terrible attitude he dropped completely out because there was such a high risk associated with taking him. Cinny got a steal because street FA are almost certainly all low risk high reward players.

marcb2 | 12 years 4 months #

Couple of interesting things to me:

1) Scouts don't say what they're really thinking on the record
2) Scouts have conversations with other scouts, coaches, & GMs to get their thinking -- but not with the self anointed experts that are quoted so often.

Baltimore Hokie

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| 12 years 4 months #

There seem to be parallels (or would they be skew lines?) between NFL teams' inability to properly evaluate risky or marginal talent and VT's ability to evaluate and sign improperly ranked recruits (Maddy, Nicholas, and Sobczak hopefully). Maybe I'm looking at it through orange and maroon colored glasses though and suffering from selection bias.

Actually, you are right there's a parallel, but incorrect about the NATURE of the parallel. Players like Maddy and Dadi are the exceptions, especially in the most recent timeframe. Take a look at our 2010 and 2011 recruiting classes and consider our success with these 'rough diamonds' as a whole, not just the ones that worked out.